Biden's Toughest Opponent: Himself

DENVER - In selecting Sen. Joseph Biden as his running mate, Barack Obama
gains some needed foreign policy expertise, but loses some credibility. If
Washington is as bad as these two say it is, was Biden a contributor or an
enabler during his six Senate terms? If 36 years in the Senate doesn't make
you an "insider" and part of the problem, what does?

Presidential candidates love to run against Washington and pretend they are
outsiders, even when they have been insiders. The same applies to John
McCain, who has been an insider for 26 years, 24 of them in the Senate. But
while McCain has been critical of some Bush administration policies -
notably the initial way the Iraq War was fought with too few troops - Biden
has a litany of criticism of Obama, which the McCain campaign will use to
undermine whatever enhancements Biden brings to the Democratic ticket.

Last August on "The Diane Rehm Show," Biden said, "If the Democrats think
we're going to be able to nominate someone who can win without that person
being able to table unimpeachable credentials on national security and
foreign policy, I think we're making a tragic mistake." If Democrats buy the
line that Biden's foreign policy credentials as chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee make up for Obama's foreign policy deficiencies (Obama
has said his opposition to the Iraq War "came from a set of experiences that
come from a life of living overseas, having family overseas, being able to
see the world through the eyes of people outside our borders"), aren't they
making the Republicans' case for putting Dick Cheney on the GOP ticket in
2000?

While 180-degree turns are common in politics, Biden has a record of
substantive criticism of Obama and of support for the Iraq War that will be
difficult to explain, even in our cynical age. Presuming that Biden once
held these views out of strong conviction, how does he now reverse himself
without being charged with a willingness to say and do anything in order to
win?

On "Meet the Press" last September, Biden attacked Obama for his vote
against funding American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq: "If you tell me
I've got to take away this protection for these kids in order to win the
election, some things aren't worth it." This sounds similar to McCain's
charge that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win an election.

Obama has said he would meet unconditionally with dictators, though he
subsequently qualified that pledge by saying there must be certain
unspecified advance "preparations." Last year at the National Press Club in
Washington, Biden criticized Obama's initial statement saying, "Would I make
a blanket commitment to meet unconditionally with the leaders of these
countries within the first year I was elected president? Absolutely,
positively no."

Obama has said that Saddam Hussein "poses no imminent and direct threat to
the United States, or to its neighbors." Biden thought otherwise: "This is a
guy who's used weapons of mass destructions. This is a guy who has
destabilized the whole neighborhood. This is a guy who in a war with
Iranians, over 800,000 people on both sides were killed. This is a guy who
is an extreme danger to the world. And this is a guy who is in every way
possible seeking weapons of mass destruction. That case, in and of itself,
ought to be sufficient." ("Meet the Press," Aug. 4, 2002)

The McCain campaign can revisit quotes other than those of Obama and Biden.
It has produced a new ad featuring Hillary Clinton, which
recalls some of her criticisms of Obama and "empathizes" with her for not
being chosen by Obama as his running mate.

There's also the issue of Obama's much touted ability to reach out and
compromise with Republicans. According to the National Journal, Obama has
the Senate's most liberal voting record. Joe Biden was ranked third most
liberal in 2007. No demonstration of compromise there.

Biden is not "change we can believe in." He is change to deceive with.
Biden's toughest opponent is not John McCain and whoever he picks as his
running mate. Biden's toughest opponent is himself.

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